As Christians, we should be master of the spiritual; unfortunately, we have become masters of the visible. The new sciences, such as string theory and quantum physics, are telling us that the basic physical structure of the universe is more unseen than seen, more energy than matter. There is a push towards the visible and unseen yet the church has moved toward the seen in the form of programs and growth strategies.
Einstein gave us E=mc2. This formula showed how the universe was structured. It broke us out of newtonian thinking. What Einstein was telling in this equation was that energy and matter are different forms of the same thing. The problem in the church is that we’ve mastered the other side of the equation; we’ve become tree-people. We hug trees quite well. Engineers are tree people; spiritual leaders should be wind people. We’ve become tree-huggers instead of wind-surfers.
Disciples of Jesus are students of the wind and spiritual leaders are masters of the wind. We need to teach people to live at air-speed, not ground speed. We’re not to be earth bound but heaven bound. We are called to learn to study the E side of the equation and not spend all our time on the m=matter side.
Wind people are able to learn the weather patterns and wind shifts as well as the dangers of the air. Ironically, the devil is called the prince of the air in Ephesians, so the air contains both good and bad. Wind-surfers understand the difference. Wind people should be as obsessed with wind as engineers and CEO’s and physicians are with trees.
In the Hebrew, the word for wind and spirit are the same. We are born of water and of the Spirit. We need to coax the Spirit out of hiding and live in the streams of the Spirit.
To be a pneumanaut means that you are totally unpredictable with a schedule dictated by the wind. Notice the pneumanaut Jesus. He went where the Father told him to go. He had no set agenda or schedule apart from the cross. He simply followed the wind.
Leadership, especially spiritual leadership, needs to be about following the wind; preparing for the divine leading instead of planning our own agendas. Unfortunately, this means we are not in control. As Spiritual leaders, we should understand we are not in control and that it is actually a great freedom to not be in control. But our CEO leadership styles are restricting the blowing of the wind through our hearts and churches.
Bill Bright filmed a video to be shown after his death where he offered his last 3 words to the next generation:
1. Never lose your first love – remain in love with Christ
2. Share Christ
3. Discover the ministry of the Holy Spirit
We need to remember those words and seek to recover the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives and churches.
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David is an entrepreneur, pastor, coach, and author. He has his doctorate from George Fox Seminary where he studied under Len Sweet, his M.Div. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and has done post graduate work in communications from the University of Alabama and the University of South Florida. He lives with his wife Brenna Phillips in Smyrna, DE. 
